Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Bee is for Breedlove. (What?)

So it seems that when you get married, there are a few questions that EVERYONE IN THE WORLD simply must ask. There are two in particular that no one can resist.

1) Are you having kids? This is sometimes phrased as, "When are you having kids?" As if reproduction is not only something that everyone wants to do but is also something everyone is able to do. Trust me when I tell you that you don't want to get me started on this one. Jonathan and I have a variety of ways to rebuff this inquiry, more or less gently depending on the inquirer.

2) Are you changing your name? This one's just for me of course, and is significantly more fun - particularly because the answer is yes! In this instance I am doing the "normal" thing and taking my new husband's name. In my creative pursuits I will continue with my chosen nom de plume, but how was I ever going to turn down Breedlove? Please. Best name ever. Half of why I married him. (Kidding. It's only a quarter.)

Names... have always been an issue for me. For a long time I didn't even really identify with my first name. I went through a stint in middle school where I dabbled in having people call me by my middle name, Michelle. Apparently I look more like a Michelle anyway - people have accidentally called me Michelle my whole life, not even knowing the validity of the misnomer. Then in high school there was my brief obsession with the name Zoe, Greek for life. Why? Who knows. Everybody knows all cool names start with Z, I guess.

At some point in my late teens the world decided I would be called Mel, and though I never particularly liked it I embraced it. I wore it like armor: a name for the personality that walked around out there in the world for me while I hid inside of my head. It came with a bonus, in that many people assumed my name was Melanie. A cloak of anonymity, even as I dyed my hair pink and purple and walked the streets in giant boots and wifebeaters.

In the past couple of years, though, something new has happened. I've stopped being a persona and began to just be a person, and as such I no longer need that false name. Slowly but surely, even to me, I became Melissa. Which, though quite common among women my age, is actually a pretty interesting name. Mel means honey, and Melissa means little honey bee. I have a thing with bees these days; they're a fairly good symbol for my life, now that I've started to get over the phoenix thing.

Bees are the symbol of fertility and sexuality.Its honeycomb, a hexagon, isthe symbol of the heart andrepresents the sweetness of life found withinour own hearts.It is also the symbol of the sun and all its energies.

The bee reminds us to extract the honey of life and to make ourlives fertile (productive) while the sun shines.No matter how great thedream is, there is the promise of fulfillmentif we pursue our dreams.

If a Bee has shown up in your life, examine your own productivity.Are you doing all you can to make your life more productive?Are youbusy enough?Are you making time to savor the honey of life and not becominga workaholic?

The Bee is the symbol of accomplishing the impossible.Aerodynamically, its body is too large for its wings and should not be ableto fly. Although now we understand how it does fly (high rate of wingmovement), the Bee remains a symbol of accomplishing anything you put yourmind to.

So there you go. To pursue, and sometimes accomplish, the impossible; to stay busy, almost too busy; to appreciate what is sweet in life (what I call the little things) - for better or worse, it's sort of me in a nutshell.

Please give if you can!

It goes like this.

We planned a whole vegan shebang up here in NYC, which even with our super-simple lowballing plans was singing to the tune of $25K... or more. So we decided that no way were we gonna drop that kind of cash on one day, no matter how important that day might be. We floated in limbo for a while. Have there been other problems? Oh yes, there have. But now we've arrived at a solid Plan B - wedding in New Orleans! Sounds a little nuts, right? But it actually makes more sense than anything else we've considered...

What is this girl rambling about?

Well, the thing is that my fiance and I are both vegan, and this wedding is for us. But of course we also want it to be amazing for our guests. We're also fairly non-traditional; there will be no church, I will not be wearing white, and we refuse to go into debt over this thing. No one's giving me to anyone, and there's no aisle to walk down anyway. What it all adds up to is that we'll be sort of starting from scratch, building a wedding that works for us from the ground up. We'll be doing a lot of things ourselves, from interrogating caterers and cake-makers to making our own centerpieces, bouquets, and invitations. It won't be as off-the-wall as some of the weddings out there, but it won't be your standard fare either, and it should be rather fun making it all happen. As my darling would say, you can color along and see what happens...

The ring. *sigh*

Our Lennox champagne glasses.

the mikasa cake serving set - look ma, no bows!

topiary!

Cupcakes from Vegan Treats that we are not having. But they were good!

About Me

vegan in new orleans, hurrah. i was born in a storm, and raised in one too. and then one named katrina changed my life. i have a hard time saying where i'm from, but i can tell you for sure that my heart and my home are in new orleans, the place where i wasn't born. i left there after nine years not knowing what i had - what's that old cliche? now i've returned with a better appreciation. in the interim, i spent 5.5 years in nyc riding the subway and taking pictures. i get by with a husband who loves to drive me crazy, four rescued rabbits, and one rescued monster who thinks himself a cat.